Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has entered into six partnerships with the Department of Posts, Odisha Circle, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) to strengthen digital agriculture, improve seed systems, promote climate resilience and enhance nutrition and livelihoods among farming communities.
The partnerships were formalised by the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister and Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, Commissioner-cum-Secretary Agriculture Sachin Ramchandra Jadhav, Chief Postmaster General Nirmaljeet Singh, Director of Agriculture Shubham Saxena and Director of Horticulture Kalunge Gorakh Waman.
Singh Deo said the agreements marked an important shift towards a more decentralised and technology-driven agricultural system in the State. He said the government would leverage the extensive rural network of Gramin Dak Sevaks to take digital agricultural services to farmers, while collaborations with research institutions would help strengthen seed systems and improve farm productivity.
The partnership with the Department of Posts, Odisha Circle will focus on improving last-mile access to digital agricultural services, particularly for farmers in rural and remote areas. Gramin Dak Sevaks will assist with Farmer Registry enrolment and Farmer ID generation, CM KISAN registration, PM-KISAN e-KYC and NPCI/Aadhaar seeding. Additional farmer-centric digital services may also be facilitated through the network in the future.
Focus on quality seeds and climate resilience
Four RKVY-DPR projects being implemented in collaboration with ICRISAT will focus on strengthening seed systems for pulses and oilseeds. The initiatives include efforts towards self-reliance in pulses, chickpea seed production and speed breeding for the development of improved and climate-resilient crop varieties.
The collaboration is expected to improve farmers’ access to quality seeds, encourage crop diversification and enhance productivity while helping farming communities better cope with climate variability.
Nutrition-based farming project in Nayagarh
The partnership with MSSRF will support a three-year Farming System for Nutrition project in Nayagarh covering around 3,000 small and marginal farmers.
The initiative will promote an integrated farming approach involving biofortified crops, pulses, vegetables, backyard poultry and aquaculture. It will also support seed banks, nutrition gardens and community processing units.
The project aims to improve the production of nutrient-rich food, increase farm incomes, diversify household diets and strengthen nutrition security among rural families.
The government said the six initiatives collectively represent three key pillars of agricultural transformation in Odisha—digital access, productivity and climate resilience, and nutrition and livelihood security.
The Agriculture Department emphasised that the effectiveness of these partnerships would ultimately be assessed by their impact on farmers, particularly through improved incomes, better access to services, stronger resilience and enhanced livelihood opportunities.
